Dynamical estimation of neuron and network properties I: variational methods

We present a method for using measurements of membrane voltage in individual neurons to estimate the parameters and states of the voltage-gated ion channels underlying the dynamics of the neuron's behavior. Short injections of a complex time-varying current provide sufficient data to determine the reversal potentials, maximal conductances, and kinetic parameters of a diverse range of channels, representing tens of unknown parameters and many gating variables in a model of the neuron's behavior. These estimates are used to predict the response of the model at times beyond the observation window. This method of data assimilation extends to the general problem of determining model parameters and unobserved state variables from a sparse set of observations, and may be applicable to networks of neurons. We describe an exact formulation of the tasks in nonlinear data assimilation when one has noisy data, errors in the models, and incomplete information about the state of the system when observations commence. This is a high dimensional integral along the path of the model state through the observation window. In this article, a stationary path approximation to this integral, using a variational method, is described and tested employing data generated using neuronal models comprising several common channels with Hodgkin-Huxley dynamics. These numerical experiments reveal a number of practical considerations in designing stimulus currents and in determining model consistency. The tools explored here are computationally efficient and have paths to parallelization that should allow large individual neuron and network problems to be addressed.